Operation Red 1

Operation Red 1 (25 June 1968) was a US military operation that occurred in the Vietnam War. The Americans defeated the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) irregulars in jungle warfare, using napalm, airstrikes, and an attack helicopter to root the NVA out.

Operation
Colonel Rutherford Webster of MACV-SOG was dispatched with 300 US soldiers to capture two villages in northern South Vietnam from the North Vietnamese Army, whose 500 troops in the area were under the command of Van Thien Gun. The American force had assistance from nearby airbase Clark Field, and they were sent into the river valley near the villages to fight the NVA.

The Americans fired the first shots at NVA troops passing underneath a bridge, and they killed five NVA instantly. The NVA captured an American SAM site at the village to the west, and set up a camera system supplied to them by the Chinese there. The US Marine Corps 5th Marine Regiment recaptured the site and drove the NVA back, destroying their camera. The Americans then called in a helicopter gunship, which made its first round, a man using a minigun gunning down several NVA troops on the ground. A Rolling Thunder strike was soon called on the eastern village to pound the NVA soldiers there, killing quite a few. In time, another helicopter gunship strike was called, with the same gunship making its second round. Its devastating minigun fire mowed down several NVA troops on the ground, who were unable to fire at them with any RPGs or SAMs. By day's end, 150 NVA and 92 Americans were lost, and the American operation was a success.